SkinsHokieFan
July-21st-2010, 03:12 PM
From Bubba's forum. This is something that we all hoped for during the darkest days of 2009. I also think it calls into question of "what the hell was going on when Joe Gibbs was in town"
http://www.hogshaven.com/2010/7/21/1...und-a-football (http://www.hogshaven.com/2010/7/21/1580048/boots-on-the-ground-a-football)
When we were putting together Maple Street Press' 2010 Annual Redskins' magazine this year, we asked long-time Redskins beat writer, Rick Snider, to write an article highlighting the differences at Redskins Park from past regimes to the current one. It's obvious things have changed with Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan in charge, so Rick takes us inside Redskins Park. This article unfortunately got dropped from the magazine due to a miscommunication at deadline, so we're posting here as to not let this gem go unread.
There's a football team inside Redskins Park nowadays.
Not a simple statement. For the past 10 years, it was a marketing company whose product was football. A billion dollar corporation more worried about corporate patrons than its players no matter how much they were overpaid. The first $100 million team payroll was in Washington. The first $5 million per year coach. This was the place everyone was paid and paid well.
It was all about selling jerseys of new stars. Postgame parties where the Redskinettes shaked, rattled and rolled for club seat members. Players signing dozens of jerseys and helmets every day for marketing workers to entice advertisers.
It was all about shaking the money tree of Redskins fans in a 90,000-seat stadium with an alleged 200,000 waiting list. Snyder nearly doubled the team's worth from his $750 million purchase with reported $50 million annual profits.
Owner Dan Snyder entered a young corporate tycoon, a 34-year-old who yearned to be cool like athletes despite a small frame and no sports background. His first speech to the team after taking over in 1999 was to say he was an expletive thinking players would be impressed. Instead, they laughed at him like some presumptive nerd folding towels who wanted a varsity letter, too.
Snyder quickly made a very telling change that epitomized the culture switch from football team to corporation. Oversized couches in the lobby where many players spent a few minutes between meetings were replaced with sterile, shallow furniture that wouldn't support 300-pounders.
Indeed, players were informally steered to the lower lockerroom level of the Ashburn, Va. facility. So was the media. No more milling around like the family atmosphere under preceding owner Jack Kent Cooke. This was a corporation and Snyder didn't want visitors to see all these ballplayers hanging around the building even if it was their building.
Indeed, Snyder moved business operations into Redskins Park. Cooke kept accountants, attorneys and marketing workers at his Middleburg, Va. estate and stadium. Snyder replaced much of the preceding staff and turned a company where many workers spent decades into one that needed a revolving door to handle the constant staff changes both on and off the field.
It stayed that way for 10 years through six coaches. Indeed, only the receptionist remains from the Cooke era.
This long-winded recap is needed to demonstrate the seismic shift undergone over the offseason.
General manager Bruce Allen and coach Mike Shanahan now run Redskins Park. Snyder is seldom seen, having reportedly spent the offseason trying to buy Miramax Films for $700 million. Snyder's top two aides - vice presidents Vinny Cerrato and Karl Swanson are gone.
And everyone in the building has exhaled. Working hard hasn't stopped, but workers inside Redskins Park now longer fear being fired on a daily basis. Why, you can almost see people smile.
Shanahan ordered a remodeling of the weight room with new strength staff, too. That's not surprising. Most coaches change the atmosphere. But, players noticed a new attitude immediately. After two years of a loose-styled Jim Zorn, including the past season where the coach's fate was seemingly sealed after three games, players now face a new discipline with a long list of fineable infractions down to double parking their vehicles.
continue reading... (http://www.hogshaven.com/2010/7/21/1580048/boots-on-the-ground-a-football)
http://www.hogshaven.com/2010/7/21/1...und-a-football (http://www.hogshaven.com/2010/7/21/1580048/boots-on-the-ground-a-football)
When we were putting together Maple Street Press' 2010 Annual Redskins' magazine this year, we asked long-time Redskins beat writer, Rick Snider, to write an article highlighting the differences at Redskins Park from past regimes to the current one. It's obvious things have changed with Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan in charge, so Rick takes us inside Redskins Park. This article unfortunately got dropped from the magazine due to a miscommunication at deadline, so we're posting here as to not let this gem go unread.
There's a football team inside Redskins Park nowadays.
Not a simple statement. For the past 10 years, it was a marketing company whose product was football. A billion dollar corporation more worried about corporate patrons than its players no matter how much they were overpaid. The first $100 million team payroll was in Washington. The first $5 million per year coach. This was the place everyone was paid and paid well.
It was all about selling jerseys of new stars. Postgame parties where the Redskinettes shaked, rattled and rolled for club seat members. Players signing dozens of jerseys and helmets every day for marketing workers to entice advertisers.
It was all about shaking the money tree of Redskins fans in a 90,000-seat stadium with an alleged 200,000 waiting list. Snyder nearly doubled the team's worth from his $750 million purchase with reported $50 million annual profits.
Owner Dan Snyder entered a young corporate tycoon, a 34-year-old who yearned to be cool like athletes despite a small frame and no sports background. His first speech to the team after taking over in 1999 was to say he was an expletive thinking players would be impressed. Instead, they laughed at him like some presumptive nerd folding towels who wanted a varsity letter, too.
Snyder quickly made a very telling change that epitomized the culture switch from football team to corporation. Oversized couches in the lobby where many players spent a few minutes between meetings were replaced with sterile, shallow furniture that wouldn't support 300-pounders.
Indeed, players were informally steered to the lower lockerroom level of the Ashburn, Va. facility. So was the media. No more milling around like the family atmosphere under preceding owner Jack Kent Cooke. This was a corporation and Snyder didn't want visitors to see all these ballplayers hanging around the building even if it was their building.
Indeed, Snyder moved business operations into Redskins Park. Cooke kept accountants, attorneys and marketing workers at his Middleburg, Va. estate and stadium. Snyder replaced much of the preceding staff and turned a company where many workers spent decades into one that needed a revolving door to handle the constant staff changes both on and off the field.
It stayed that way for 10 years through six coaches. Indeed, only the receptionist remains from the Cooke era.
This long-winded recap is needed to demonstrate the seismic shift undergone over the offseason.
General manager Bruce Allen and coach Mike Shanahan now run Redskins Park. Snyder is seldom seen, having reportedly spent the offseason trying to buy Miramax Films for $700 million. Snyder's top two aides - vice presidents Vinny Cerrato and Karl Swanson are gone.
And everyone in the building has exhaled. Working hard hasn't stopped, but workers inside Redskins Park now longer fear being fired on a daily basis. Why, you can almost see people smile.
Shanahan ordered a remodeling of the weight room with new strength staff, too. That's not surprising. Most coaches change the atmosphere. But, players noticed a new attitude immediately. After two years of a loose-styled Jim Zorn, including the past season where the coach's fate was seemingly sealed after three games, players now face a new discipline with a long list of fineable infractions down to double parking their vehicles.
continue reading... (http://www.hogshaven.com/2010/7/21/1580048/boots-on-the-ground-a-football)